Balotelli Soon To Fullfil Italian Dream

Italy's new coach Cesare Prandelli may enlist stars Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano for the team's first match since its disastrous exit from the World Cup, an Italian sports daily reported Monday.

"Cassano could play centre and Balotelli on the left," Prandelli told sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview.

"But I can't say whether they will play together in London" in a friendly match against Ivory Coast next Monday, he said.

Prandelli said he believed Sampdoria playmaker Cassano, 28, had finally matured after getting married in June.

Prandelli's predecessor Marcello Lippi snubbed both Cassano and Balotelli, Inter Milan's teenaged forward, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.The new manager said he believed 19-year-old Balotelli's imminent move from Inter Milan to Manchester City would improve his chances of playing for the national team.

Prandelli said there were 60 players he could draw from ahead of the Ivory Coast game, and that since the friendly is "very early... I will give priority to those I know less well and who have played the most."

After the Ivory Coast game, Italy will play Estonia on September 3 and the Faroe Islands on September 7 in qualifying matches for the UEFA Euro 2012 championships in Poland and Ukraine.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. ~Aesop

Ignorance can be educated,drunkenness sobered,craziness medicated but there is no cure for STUPIDITY

Massa we are tired of him. We have too many of his 'kind' in the team already. Sulley is a handful and don't forger Bra. Laryea too. Bawuah would have made things worse for Milo. Am happy for him if only they'd not use him once and dump him just like the US did the Freddy Adu. With or without him, the B.S is the Black Stars.